What am I doing? What do I expect to happen? George to pull me into her arms and kiss and me and thank me for her broken nose. It was hopeless. And yet, there I was walking up the stairs of George's home heading to her bedroom. I knocked on the door her Dad pointed me to, no response, I knocked agin, louder this time, still no response. I cracked the door open, just a tiny amount,

"George?" I called, "it's Alyssa..."

My jaw dropped open as the door swung open. The first thing I noticed was George, the brave, fearless girl who wore doc martins and black everything and didn't care what anyone thought, was cowered in the corner. Her nose was completely covered in plaster, so you could barely see her dark eyes and swollen bruised lips. But what shocked me more was her room.

Everything was pink. Pink walls, pink curtains, even pink teddy bears surrounding her bright pink bed cover.

"George, your, room! It's so-"

"Pink," she said, rolling her bruised eyes as she spoke, even with her nose-cast she managed to be be sarcastic.

"Well, yeah-" I stammered, completely forgetting what I really wanted to say.

"My Dad decorated it. When we moved here he wanted to give me a new start and what a better way to do it than painting my room pink..."

She caught my eye and we both burst into a laughter.

"Ah fuck," George broke in all of a sudden as she held her hand up to her cast. I scooped over to her, making myself comfortable on her bed.

"Are you OK?" I reached out to her but then dropped my hand awkwardly. Suddenly I was aware why I was here, why I was sat on George's bed, why she had a nose-cast on for God's sake.

She dropped her head. Her dark hair covering her face then looked up,

"Bruises, broken bones, it's temporary Lyss..."

Her hand seemed to be creeping closer to mine, my palms were sweating, my mouth dry, I looked up at her and her eyes were wide and staring at me.

"I- what I did-" she stammered. I wasn't expecting this, I thought I would be apologising.

"You have every right to be mad," George's smooth voice cut into my racing thoughts, "it's just I couldn't admit-" she paused for a long moment and her gaze seemed to cloud over like her thoughts were in another place altogether. "We moved here, my Dad and I, to get away from everything. He couldn't accept me liking girls."

She reached over and squeezed my arm, then trailed her fingertips along my wrist before pulling my hand into hers and squeezing it in hers.

"But I do, like girls," her swollen lips spread into a small smile and mine started to stretch into one too, "or more specifically a girl..."

"There's another problem though," I said, letting her hand drop.

Her eyes widened  and she gazed up at me, looking more beautiful and vulnerable and lost than I've ever seen her before.

"I'm not into girly girls," I smiled as I gestured around the room.

"I can fix that," she laughed as she leant in to me and pulled me into a huge bear hug, her arms pulling me in to the smell of washing powder and lavender that covered her.

"Even if I can't fix my nose."

I pulled back and we both fell into laughter again.

"I'm sorry Alyssa."

And then I lightly kissed her nose cast and whispered,

"Don't be."